I'm Starting to See the Appeal
by Katherine A. Jones
Summary: Alfred and Arthur are Gamers/Youtubers and occasionally read fanfiction about themselves to their viewers. Alfred is clueless about fangirl lingo and a little more comes of it than usual. Wouldn't really define as "romance" but there's no "accidental mutual confession" option. USUK. Human AU, therefore human names used. Rated for cussing, but it has Artie in it, so that was obvious


**Hey everyone! Guess what? This is another birthday present! This time it is for the ever lovely and wonderful GarryxMcChairFan (great name, right?) whose birthday was yesterday, but she knows why this is late (I'm sorry, again!). She gave me the prompt of _"YouTube gamers!USUK where Al and Artie are two well-known co-op LPers who stumble across fanfiction written about them and occasionally read cute, fluffy fics to their fans, all the while wishing that the fanfiction was real"_ and I kind of ran with it. I'm not so much in the gamer side of YouTube, so this is slightly more based off of my experience with other YouTubers, but that shouldn't matter too much, I hope. I also hope you like this, Chair, even if it wasn't exactly what you were expecting. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"What up my peeps?!" Alfred F. Jones, LPer and YouTuber extraordinaire, asked the camera was a big grin and his usual over-the-top energy.

"Must you always insist on doing that?" Arthur Kirkland asked beside him, arms crossed, an eyebrow raised, and judgemental eyes settled on the American.

"Whaaaaat? It's my greeting!"

"Yes, I know, that's why I asked if you must always do that."

Alfred huffed and pouted, "Yes, I must always do that. It wouldn't be _my_ greeting if _I_ didn't do it. Just do your greeting already!"

Arthur gave the camera a little, sarcastic wave.

Alfred raised an eyebrow and deadpanned, "Really? That is so lame, dude."

Arthur glared at him and elbowed him in the ribs. Unfortunately, he knew Alfred's pout and the way he rubbed the spot Arthur had just hit was only for show. It didn't make him any happier.

"Anyway," Alfred said, turning back towards the camera and changing the conversation, "Artie here and I will be reading a little fanfiction to you all today."

Arthur scowled and grumbled, "Don't call me Artie." But by this point in their friendship, it was a half-hearted thing at best.

Alfred just grinned at Arthur's annoyance and continued, "I have already picked out a story for us to read and it's on my laptop." He looked around himself and muttered, "Now, where did I put that thing?"

Arthur rolled his eyes at Alfred's tendency to lose things and picked up where Alfred left off, "Neither of us have read it beforehand, so all reactions are genuine. For some reason, I decided to trust Alfred's judgement, so we'll see how this goes," Arthur ignored Alfred's indignant "Hey!" and carried on, "You all have seen us do this before, so you know we just do it to make you all happy and not because we get money out of it or whatever. I don't know why, but you all like to pair us together a lot and all of the different ship names are weird, for the record."

Alfred had finally found his laptop and so looked over at Arthur in confusion, "What the hell is a ship name?"

Arthur just rolled his eyes.

* * *

"Arthur wrapped his arms around Alfred and drew him in close to whisper against his lips, 'Would you like to-'" Arthur broke off and stared at the screen for a moment before looking up at Alfred and then back down to the screen, his brow crinkled, "Did this story, by any chance, have the word 'smut' in the description?"

"Uh . . ." Alfred scrunched up his face, trying to remember, "Maybe? Why?"

Arthur could hear the laughter in his own voice as he asked, "Do you have any idea what smut it?"

"Noooooo . . . ? I told you I'm not into the whole fandom thing and that was why you gave me the job of finding the story to read because, and I quote, 'You won't be swayed by previous experience and won't understand what words mean so the viewers will get a more genuine look into the randomness of picking a story.' which didn't really make much sense because of course I understand what words mean, but things like 'smut' aren't actually words, so those don't count. Why? Is it a bad thing? Does it mean we're going to die?"

Arthur gave Alfred another amused look, shook his head, and continued reading, "Arthur wrapped his arms around Alfred and drew him in close to whisper against his lips, 'Would you like to unwrap me here or would you rather do it in your bedroom?'" He handed the laptop back to Alfred, trying to stifle a snicker.

Alfred, the lucky, oblivious bloke, didn't seem to understand where this was going, "Alfred glanced around and replied, 'As much as I love to make a scene, I think my bedroom might be better for this one. I'm going to make you scream.' And with that, he led Arthur up to his room, giggles passing between them the whole way." He scowled, "I don't giggle."

Arthur rolled his eyes and picked up the story, "Arthur, always the sensible one," Arthur smirked proudly at that and Alfred sent an elbow to the Brit's ribs, "made sure to lock the door behind them, 'So no one can interrupt,' he purred."

"Alfred practically growled and swiftly moved Arthur over to the bed and- . . . waaaaaaaait . . . HOLY SHIT!"

Arthur took one look at Alfred's face and burst out laughing. "Took you long enough," he got out between gawfs.

Alfred, meanwhile, was absolutely freaking out, "WHAT THE HELL?! WHY ARE PEOPLE WRITING THAT STUFF ABOUT US?! I CAN UNDERSTAND THE KISSING, BUT THIS?! THIS IS RIDICULOUS! WE'RE JUST FRIENDS AND YOU WOULD NEVER DO THAT WITH ME AND OH MY FUCKING GOD THAT IS JUST SO WRONG! WE'RE ACTUAL HUMAN BEINGS! I CAN UNDERSTAND IT WITH FICTIONAL CHARACTERS, BUT WITH ACTUAL PEOPLE?!"

Arthur opened his mouth to say something, confused, but a glance at the camera made him decide to save it for later. Instead, he said, "Alfred, calm down. It's just a story. We don't have to finish it up if you don't want to."

Alfred pouted and turned his strongest puppy eyes on Arthur, "Thank you, Artie, you're the best." And suddenly he had latched himself onto Arthur koala style and Arthur was desperately trying to get air in as he felt like he was being squeezed to death.

"Let's just finish this video up, yeah?" he choked out.

"Oh, right!" Alfred released Arthur and Arthur took in a couple of breaths to return oxygen to his body. "Well, Arthur and I are not going to be finishing this because that just got really awkward and I mean, c'mon y'all, seriously?" He shuddered for effect. "Anyway, on Arthur's channel, we did the What's That Body Part Challenge," Arthur made a face, "So you all should go check that out in this box over Arthur's face," he made a box with his hands over Arthur's face and Arthur glared through it, "And what else should they do, Artie?"

Arthur perked up a little now that Alfred's hands were no longer in his face, "They should like this video and subscribe to both of our channels. Leave a comment below about what you liked and whether or not you think we should do this again some time. If we decide to do it again, _I'll_ pick the story so we'll actually read all of it."

"And I'll see you all next time," Alfred blew a kiss to the camera, Arthur gave him a disgusted face, and Alfred turned the camera off. "Well, that was fun."

Arthur, suddenly serious, asked, "What was that all about?"

Alfred wrinkled his forehead, "What was what all about?"

Arthur made a general gesture, "The whole, 'You would never do that with me,' thing."

Alfred blushed, "I-I meant, uh, we would never do that together because we're just friends."

Arthur gave him a bitchface he totally stole from Sam Winchester, "Alfred, I'm an English major and I actually did the work on that stupid discourse analysis research paper we had to do in high school. I am incredibly trained in paying attention to language and specific words used, especially unconsciously, and you said _I_ would never do that with _you_, so what the hell was going through that head of yours that made you say that?"

Alfred turned absolutely scarlet and opened and closed his mouth a few time before pushing out, "Nothing."

"Alright, let me try again. I have been your best friend for a fucking long ass time and I don't think either of us even know how long it's been, but the point is that I arguably know you better than your own mother, so spill, because I've never seen you this self-conscious before and it's worrying me."

Alfred shifted uncomfortably, "It's nothing, I promise. I've just come to accept a few things about our relationship."

Arthur narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Like what? Because you're making it sound like . . . Oh," his eyes widened a little, "You think I don't like you?!"

Alfred's shoulders fell a little, "I . . . I mean, I know you like me like a friend and all, I just . . ."

"Shut up."

Alfred's eyes widened and his mouth opened a little.

"Shut up and kiss me, you idiot."

Arthur didn't give Alfred time to react, instead suddenly surging forward like he was afraid that if he waited, Alfred would disappear forever.

The initial touch of Arthur's lips was tentative, despite the force put behind getting them where they now were, but they became more bold as Alfred reciprocated. At some point in time, Alfred pushed Arthur back onto the couch they were sitting on and Arthur's lanky arms looped around Alfred's neck, drawing him closer until he was completely surrounded and intoxicated with the smell, feeling, and taste of Arthur. Eventually, they had to draw in air and Alfred got to take in the sight of Arthur spread out beneath him and the sound of his ragged breathing as he took much needed in oxygen.

"You have no idea how long I've been wanting to do that," Alfred breathed.

"I think I might have some idea," Arthur replied before pressing their lips together again.

* * *

**Definitely different, but I've wanted to do a YouTubers fic for a while, so the prompt worked out well. **

**Confession: this was so incredibly awkward to write because I don't write smut and when I write scenes that are close to smut, there is at least some precursor so it's a little bit easier to be in that mindset, but in this one I had to be in the "why are people writing this about us" and the "oh yeah, c'mon here, baby *wolf whistle*" mindset at the same time and it was just the weirdest thing I've ever done (which, I'll be honest, is saying a lot).**

**Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this and please let me know if something doesn't make sense because I will reply to reviews and answer questions because I know how annoying it is to be confused about something and never get an answer (and, who knows, maybe we'll start talking a ton and you'll end up getting a birthday fic). Also, please drop a "Happy Birthday" in Chair's inbox or say it in a review on here and I'll make sure she gets the wishes.**

**Also, I feel like I should let you all know that I'm giving up reading fanfiction for Lent (which, yikes, includes WIP fanfictions I'm currently reading) and I don't know if that means I'll be posting more stories because I won't be spending time read other peoples' stories and will actually work on my own fics, or if it means I'm going to avoid everything FanFiction and AO3 like the plague so I don't run the risk of breaking my promise, but I guess we'll find out. I mean, it's not like I post that often anyway, but I felt like it was something I needed to share. I'll still reply to PMs, though.**

**Long AN is long.**

**I hope you have a great week,**

**-Katherine**


End file.
